


The Relic

by SeymoreSinn



Category: Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Got me., I Blame Tumblr, Where is this going?, more to come! - Freeform, probably, read the linked post first, this is very very AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-18
Updated: 2015-05-18
Packaged: 2018-03-31 03:04:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3962056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeymoreSinn/pseuds/SeymoreSinn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Honestly, I have no good explanation for this. However, the genesis of this story is this Tumblr post linked bellow.<br/>YOU SHOULD READ THE TUMBLR POST FIRST!</p><p>http://pywren.tumblr.com/post/116666017702/star-trek-au-where-the-federation-was-never</p><p>I read it. Then this baby fell, fully formed, from my brain. As Athena was born from the head of Zeus!</p><p>Or something.</p><p>Maybe there will be more. I can't say right now. So... I guess enjoy it as a weird little ficlet?</p><p>I did not ask for permission to use this idea, as it was a public post on Tumblr. If you are the progenitor of this AU idea and you don't want me to use it for whatever reason, let me know and I'll remove it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Relic

It wasn’t supposed to go like this. Not at all.

It was just supposed to be a get in, get out. Deliver. Profit. The usual thing.

It was most assuredly *not* supposed to be this complicated.

Jim was in his office, chair tipped back, feet on the desk, one arm slung across his face, covering his eyes.

The door chime was as expected as it was unwelcome.

“Enter.”

Bones entered, as expected. Stumped over the the cabinet set into the wall, returning to the desk with a bottle and two glasses, also as expected. He flopped into the visitor’s chair and poured several fingers into each glass before sliding one across to his Captain. 

“The alien is going to live.” The doctor said without preamble.

Jim startled. His feet thumping back to the floor, hands coming down on his thighs with a smack. Bones was just about the only person Jim would allow to see him like this - a picture of unvarnished, and somewhat melodramatic, surprise. 

Yet another unexpected turn of events. The stasis unit had been in operation for at least a century, probably longer. When they had removed it, they disrupted the power source. It’s system had crashed, an alien red alert blaring in the transporter bay. Bones had been all in a lather to get the cryotube to the medical bay — to do everything in his power to try and save the mysterious creature. Even though he’d been less than optimistic about its chances. 

While he’d at it, the rest of the crew had lingered awkwardly in the corridors until, one by one, they’d scattered to their quarters. To baths and meals, thence to bed or to overnight assignments.  
It was no more or less than what one Captain James T. Kirk should be doing at this moment. Instead he was drinking, sleepless and brooding, with his ship’s Doctor.

No. This was not at all how this was supposed to go. 

Bones tipped back his glass in a single swallow and promptly poured another. “He’s unharmed - near as I can tell, anyway.”

Jim groaned and followed his example. He’d been sitting in here, going over his options, thinking that this was just a botched job, which was quite bad enough, but now it seemed that he had a moral dilemma.

That was, to his mind, much worse.

The Doctor refilled his captain’s glass and leaned back into a comfortably boneless slump. “What now Captain?”

He sighed, he really hadn’t thought. (Sloppy, Jim, very sloppy) “Is it lucid?”

“As much as can be expected. I have it under mild sedation to counter some of the side effects of the resuscitation process.”

“I want to speak with it.”

“Not tonight. I’ve had enough of this happy horse-shit for one day.”

“Have you?” 

“I have. And I’m to damn old and tired to do more than sit right here and put three sheets to the wind before I take this day to bed. Let be. The alien’ll still be there in the morning. Besides, the translator was having a hard time with the language. We’ll probably need Chapel or Scotty or both to figure it out. And there ain’t no amount’a money that’s going to have me go roust them up anymore tonight.”

“So, I should sleep on it.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yes.” the doctor stood. “Sleep being the operative word.” He turned from the desk and hooked the bottle away, placing it out of Jim’s immediate reach. “And now I’m going to go do just that.” He paused at the door and turned back, “you should to. Doctor’s orders.” With that, he was gone.

Jim sat for several long moments staring, unseeing, at the closed door. Thinking. He was tempted to go down to the medical bay anyway. There was something…off, about this whole endeavor. Something that had wormed its way under his skin and into his brain. Oh, he’d had his doubts in the beginning. The same small, niggling doubts he usually had whenever he accepted a commission — those were common enough and easily dealt with — but this felt different. For one thing, he didn’t traffic in sentient beings. He wasn’t a slaver (‘and never would be’ he amended within the safety of his own mind.)

But that was only part of it.

There was something about the alien. Something he couldn’t readily place, something that seemed to draw him in. When they’d rematerialized in the transporter room, the alien had awakened for a moment. The serene dark eyes exerting a pull as inexorable as a magnet on iron…

Jim shook his head, and pushed his glass away sharply. He must be getting maudlin with drink…and lack of sleep, probably. Between the prep work for mission and the ensuing chaos he probably hadn’t slept more than 4 hours out of the last 48. He pinched the bridge of his nose against the half-headache he felt brewing. Bones was right, he admitted rather grudgingly. The alien would be there in the morning.

The mystery would keep…for now.


End file.
